This is your wash routine-cliff notes version for the holiday season. Number one problem with stink: wrong detergent or wrong first step in wash routine. If you are using an initial cold prerinse or presoak, cut it out of the routine. Hot or warm is best, you do not “cook” in stains,cold water in 99 out of 100 cases will work against you in getting diapers clean. If you do not have a warm or hot prerinse, skip it and go to your hot wash cycle. Really, non believers give it a try, too many of you are doing an entire cold/cold cycle before a cold/hot cycle and you are wasting time and water. Worst case scenario, you go back to your old routine, right? Every single detergent on the planet, including Planet (ho ho ho humor there!) will leave something behind. Whe you hit that “something” with cold water, you cool the waxy residues before your hot water can help melt it out. Think of a cooling candle here locked around feces and urine. Warm or hot water loosens those residues, and lets the hot wash cycle and detergent do the job to clean your diapers.
More on this next week…

STOREFRONT NEWS:
We will be having our first Cloth 101 session from our storefront on 1/8 at 9am-10:30 am
Please email us to RSVP if you wish to attend. Our grand opening will either be 1/15 or 1/22, I have learned not to set a date in stone until loose ends look very close to being tied up, we hope to know by the first of the year which date it will be

Whoot for 3000 fans on facebook! To celebrate, we are giving away 2 $50.00 vouchers with no expiration date to the store
Simply comment below to enter, we will pick our two winners on December 31, 2010, at 9 am Eastern time.
We encourage you to “follow” our blog, January will bring our next big Blog Chat, where we give away fantastic prizes, plus we list our cloth diapering articles, with supporting articles on other product lines. Thank you for your entry! We have TONS of giveaways on facebook, so be sure to join us if you haven’t already~

I received several emails this week from customers who were looking to boost the absorbency on their fitted diapers they were using for their babies without having to invest in new diapers. Since fitteds don’t have the pocket (save for a few), you may be wondering how to do this

The first way, if you have natural fiber inserts, such as hemp joey bunz, bamboo inserts, or velour blends, you can simply lay them on top, right in the middle. If you have a stay dry fitted, lay them behind the fitted, on top of the cover. Cotton Prefolds work well, too, trifold them like a business letter and lay them in the middle, or fold in half, and put between the fitted and cover. Microfiber shouldn’t go directly against the baby’s skin due to the quick-absorption nature of the fabric, so either lay a fleece or flannel liner on top, or put it behind the fitted. Remember when shopping, “liners” refer to something that passes wetness through but has no absorbency. “doublers” or “inserts” mean they will absorb. Usually doublers refer to something with two layers, inserts 3+. Layering can be bulky, which is why sometimes folding bulkier things in half rather than thirds and placing behind the fitted can work better.

For those of you who currently have the Softbums Echo Shells and Pods, the system will go together perfectly. What I love is the toggle sizing for a truly customized fit that doesn’t gap or have wing droop (the design of the front aplix does not droop at all, even crossed over all the way on a crawling and cruising 11 month old!). I love how high I can make the rise, Sebastian still has quite a bit of room to go, and some one size diapers he is on the highest rise of already. The pocket is easy to stuff, and it still is very trim in the crotch for slender fit. A nice addition to the Softbums line, I love when I can find a one size pocket with a high rise, as I think a good deal of your leaks are from the rise not being high enough. Absorbency of course being the main culprit, but fit is equally important in getting the diaper not to have compression leaks.

You have two insert choices, the microfiber insert which is quickly absorbing and lightweight, or the organic bamboo pod which is denser fabric and more absorbent. The pocket itself is wide enough to accomodate most everything, depending on the build of your baby, Happy Heiny Stuffins or SuperDos/LoopyDos may be too wide. Let me know if you have any questions!

The holiday season is upon us. If your little one is in the market for cloth diapers, or cloth diapering supplies, you could always create a gift registry to help friends and family donate to your fluffy cause.

Many emails have come in with parents battling yeast. Every time we have a season change, either from cold to hot or hot to cold, I see a huge influx of these emails. Yeast can present in several different ways, from spotty, scaly rashes to dry and red blistery rashes throughout the diaper area. If you are in doubt, get it checked out. Typically yeast does not resemble a pink tinge all over the skin (detergent reaction or heat rash), and does not present with fluid filled or hard sores (staph or MRSA). Your doctor will likely prescribe an anti-fungal ointment. Here is what we recommend you do:

-Depending on the severity of the yeast, you may want to use a small pack of disposables to use while you disinfect your cloth diapers. Yeast can be nasty to deal with and hard to get rid of, I would rather you have your baby heal and get those cloth diapers disinfected, and use disposables, than have a chance that the yeast will come back stronger than before. Everything needs to be disinfected, including wipes, inserts and pail liners. Now, if you have cotton print outer wet bags, dyed prefolds or cotton fitteds, bleach will obviously ruin the colors. You can try using a color safe bleach on them, but I would keep an eye on it coming back. Wet Bags and such I am not too concerned with, but if you use primarily fitteds or prefolds, a color safe bleach is what I would use for our kids.

Once the baby has been on the antifungal for 24 hours if very severe, or if very mild, once the cloth has been disinfected, you can reintroduce the diapers. Use liners while using the antifungal, and cloth liners, not disposable ones. We go over how to do that here

When your baby has healed and you are back in cloth, be proactive for a week or two to really keep it from coming back. Frequent changes, as much naked baby time as you can do, boosting absorbency at nighttime if you don’t change at night, all of these options will help keep baby dry.

Now, at the same time, you have to keep their skin moist. A good moisturizer after bathtime and disper changes isn’t a bad idea, dry skin or eczema can be more prone to yeast we have found over the years.